Happy birthday, Planet Earth - we're sorry about the mess, we promise to clean it up

January 5, 2007 With robust and creditable disregard for superstition, The Geological Society of London was founded by 13 men on Friday 13th November 1807, in The Freemason’s Tavern, Long Acre, a pub which once stood on the site of what is now the Connaught Rooms in Great Queen Street. In its 200 years the Society has seen its subject achieve maturity (with the unifying theories of plate tectonics and the “Gaian” Earth System) in a shorter time than any other science. With the simultaneous release of 4567 biodegradable balloons from the Courtyard of Burlington House, Mayfair on 10 January 2007, The Geological Society of London will celebrate not only its own 200th birthday, but also the 4567 millionth birthday of Planet Earth. The image comes from NASA and represents sea-level height data from the Jason-1 altimetric satellite last month showing that continuing weaker-than-normal trade winds in the western and central equatorial Pacific have triggered another strong, eastward moving, warm Kelvin wave.

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